REDEMPTION

Redemption means “to buy back”, “to ransom”, or “to release or set free”. In the Bible, redemption applies to a variety of things. For example, slaves were redeemed from bondage and land that had been sold could be redeemed. There was always a price to be paid in order to redeem something or someone.

In a spiritual sense, redemption applies to the soul. The Apostle Paul testified to the following:

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 7:14

This is true for all of us. It is sin that holds us in spiritual bondage. But we can be redeemed.

God tells us that no mere man can redeem us from sin, and earthly riches are powerless to do so:

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

Psalm 49:6-7

Then who can redeem us?

Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

Isaiah 44:6

And who is this One who is the first and the last?

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Revelation 1:17-18

The One who was dead and is alive for evermore is Jesus Christ. This is evident from the context of the passage above.

We said before that redemption always comes with a price. What is that price?

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

I Peter 1:18-19

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Ephesians 1:7

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Hebrews 9:12

The price paid for your redemption and mine was the blood of God.

When God was about to redeem the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery, he commanded them to take the blood of the Passover lamb and strike it on the side posts of the door of their house and above that door:

And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

Exodus 12:13

That lamb was symbolic of Jesus Christ and its blood was symbolic of his blood.

That plague that God spoke of above was the death of the firstborn in every household where the blood had not been applied.

As the Israelites applied the blood of the lamb to the door of their house, and so avoided physical death, we are to apply the blood of the Lamb of God to the door of our hearts in order to avoid eternal death in hell. We do this by repenting of our sin and putting our faith in Christ and what he did for us on the cross. Repentance is a change of mind and heart regarding our sin (seeing our sin as an offence to the holy God, and understanding that eternal hell is the just punishment for our sin). Faith is simple childlike trust.

Being justified freely by his grace

through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Romans 3:24